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Old 09-20-2015, 03:03 AM
Boomer Boomer is offline
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Ranger 33

First off, I would like to note, this site is an absolute gem. More then a few times used the resources herefor old friends who had A4s, who didn't have computer access or refused to ever get a computer.


Recently an acquaintance from the old Sailnet days, before all the old Sailnet owner forums were lost to cyperspace; contacted me about acquiring his Ranger 33. I knew the boat well since I tuned his mast about 14 years ago, and checked her out fairly well. Having been on more then a few Ranger 33s over the years, I observed she was well outfitted. I talked him into joining us at the Ranger Rendezvous in '05, when he rafted along side us at Fisherman Harbor, Lopez Island. That year my youngest son attended with me, and he remarked to me, "Dad, he has a nice Ranger 33, I wouldn't mind having one like that someday."

My grandpa used to say, "watch what you wish for, because it can come back to haunt you."

I called my son. "Remember Mike's Ranger 33, he's offering it for free, do you want it?" He replied, " Let me think about." I said, 'you've got five minutes, because he's gonna post it on Facebook at Ranger Sailboats." I called him back two minutes later. "You decide yet?", I asked. He hemmed and hawed. OK, I'll make the decision for you, your about to become the owner of a Ranger 33. She's been sitting on the hard for four years and she's gonna need a lot of work, in the next three days, so we can splash her on Sunday and bring her home." That was on August 27, we splashed her on Sunday the 30, for long beat to weather home in mostly 18-19 knots, with gusts in low to mid 20s.

We had misted the cylinders with MMO on the first day of cleanup and assessed what had to be done to the engine. The starter didn't want to come to life, so the first thing we did was pull it, and take it and solenoid apart for a good cleaning, and shinned up the commutator.

Then removed the carb, disassembled it and cleaned it thoroughly with carb cleaner and compressed air, removing a lot of gummed up crud. We then added about five gallons on fuel and cycled this through a series of filters six times, till the gas had negligible sediment. Still a wee bit of minute granular sediment, and would like to pull the tank and clean it out. We also replaced the fuel lines, Racor filter and added a polishing filter. The Facet fuel pump looked to be the original, so we ordered and installed a new pump.

We also opened up the waterpumps and lubed the impellers, then we disconnected all the hoses and checked for any buildup or obstructions, she was clean as a whistle. The heat exchanger was way low on coolant, so added about a gallon of antifreeze.

We had called Ken for a new coil, cap, condensor, points, plugs and wires, they arrived and we installed them. Fired her up last Saturday evening, and my son has started and ran her for an hour a day since then. She purrs like a kitten.

The engine has 922 hours. Looking at the logbooks of previous owners, the engine was longblocked at 800 hours by the second owner, just before Mike bought it. Mike put about a 100 hours on her in the 11 years he had her in the water.

Mike had put her on the hard to have some mechanics work on the engine due to overheating. Not sure about the mechanics, because they never found out why the engine overheated, not to mention the other poor workmanship they performed on the engine and systems on the boat. So far we have found no reason why she overheated, other then being low on coolant in the heat exchanger. Mike pointed out, in each case where they had done work, it was either done wrong or not completed properly or left apart in pieces, which my son and I had to figure out and reassemble.

We found a hand crank onboard, but haven't located the adapter. Called Ken yesterday and ordered more gaskets for the carb and a new float, which was probably bungled up by the mechanics who worked on her previously. I don't think I've every seen floats that were as bent and twisted as this set of floats. Also ordered spare zincs for the heat exchanger, spare impellers and gasgets for the waterpumps, a new exhaust gasket and a few other incidental parts.

Before we got the engine running, Will kept going on about pulling the engine and put a new engine in. I told him patience, she'll be running soon enough. Now he can't praise the engine enough. It took a little bit of work, but was well worth it. Like I said, she purrs like a kitten.

-Boomer

She cleaned up quite nicely.


A quick vid of the interior after we cleaned it up.
[YOUTUBE]vb-gNPJ9l0E[/YOUTUBE]

Sailing her home.
[YOUTUBE]1QZ9aFwjpq0[/YOUTUBE]

Last edited by Boomer; 09-24-2015 at 07:04 PM.
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